Not much is happening with the Bitcoin price right now. More specifically, we are seeing some sideways trading again, which is not entirely uncommon right before a weekend. That doesn’t mean we won’t see more Bitcoin price action over the next 48 to 72 hours, but it is doubtful the bulls will show up. For the time being, reaching US$5,700 remains out of reach for Bitcoin.
Sideways Bitcoin price Action is Boring
With virtually all cryptocurrencies remaining pretty flat right now, it is evident there is nothing to be terribly excited about whatsoever. Even the Bitcoin price is exhibiting sideways momentum right now, which is never fun to look at. With a 0.55% loss over the past 24 hours, very little has changed over the past day. Every dip has been bought up and every gain has been dumped pretty much immediately.
We saw a few hints at future sideways trading activity for Bitcoin earlier this week. More specifically, the Bitcoin price has hovered between US$5,519 and US$5,700 pretty much all week. The only exception was the major price correction which drove the price down to just below US$5,200, but that didn’t last all that long. Ever since that dip, the proverbial “channel” has narrowed from US$5,600 to US$5,700, but no major break has occurred in either direction so far.
With the Bitcoin price stuck in sideways trading mode right before the weekend, it is doubtful we will see any major changes over the weekend. Saturday and Sunday usually see losses for Bitcoin and altcoins, regardless of how the rest of the week turned out. It is a bit early to tell what the future will hold for Bitcoin as of right now, even though the momentum clearly isn’t in Bitcoin’s favor right now whatsoever.
Thankfully, it seems the overall Bitcoin trading volume is still fairly intact right now. Although the numbers are half a billion dollars lower compared to earlier this week, there is nothing to get overly worried about right now. Over the past 24 hours, we saw US$1.515 billion of volume, which is still more than respectable. It will be interesting to see how the volume behaves during the weekend, as things usually quiet down at this time of the week.
It seems Bitfinex will remain the largest Bitcoin exchange by trading volume for some time to come. It will exit the US market in a few weeks from now, though, which will certainly shake things up quite a bit. Bithumb and bitFlyer remain second and third in the rankings, respectively. It remains to be seen if either of these exchanges will eventually overtake Bitfinex in this regard, though, as the volume discrepancy is still quite large as of right now. That’s an interesting trend to keep an eye on over the coming weeks; that much is certain.
For the time being, there is no reason to be particularly excited or disappointed about the Bitcoin price momentum. Sideways trading is a part of any financial asset’s trading cycle, and Bitcoin will have to undergo it on a regular basis as well. For now, no big gains or losses are to be expected, but things can turn around at any given moment.
